SixMoreVodka

SixMoreVodka is a Berlin based studio specilizing in 2D artwork and art related services. It caters for many international cliens such as Marvel, Blizzard, Ubisoft, Disney, Codemasters and many more.

SixMoreVodka was found by Marko Djurdjevic in 2006. It have many amazing artists with years of experience in the industry. Their portfolio contains a wide range of artworks, from concept art to illustration and sequential art.

What I really like about this studio is the fact that they have managed to keep work and life balanced so well. Also they hold an evening life drawing classes which is a very good idea. Moreover regularly updated blog is a nice touch. 

Frankenweenie

Frankenweenie is a stop motion black and white film done by Tim Burton, released in 2012.

It is a remake of 1984 short animation of the same title.

Frankenweenie is a very nice and charming stop motion animation, with a solid plot and interesting characters. I really like the fact that it was done in black and white which makes it a little bit unusual but also match the overall mood of animation. Characters are very detailed and have a typical Burton-esque style to them, also backgrounds are really complex and nicely done.
It is a very good piece of animation worth watching.
Frankenweenie was nominated and won many awards in animation festivals.

Caminandes - Short Movie

Caminandes is a short animated movie made by Pablo Vazquez, Beorn Leonard, and Francesco Siddi after hours. It was inspired by old cartoons made by Chuck Jones.


The story is very simple but also charming. It's about a llama trying to cross the road. Although this was done many times before with other animals, still it makes me smile. Also the sound effects were designe very well for this video.
Caminandes was made in Blender which is just another proof that you don't need expensive software to create a beautiful animated short.

Wreck-it Ralph

Wreck-it Ralph is the animated feature film produced by Walt Disney and directed by Rich Moore.

Wreck-it Ralph is set in a game worlds and contains many referances to the real games as well as characters from them (like Sonic and Bowser). Animation is very fluid, plot - interesting. Also it's fast paced and packed with funny gags. Moreover it's full of stunning visuals and adorable characters.

Wreck-it Ralph was nominated to many awards including Annie Awards for Best Animated Feature, Character Design and Animated Effects.
I've watched Wreck-it Ralph  in 3D last week and I instantly felt in love with it.

Stop Motion Animation - Object

During last presentation we were introduced to the different types of stop motion animation. One of them was 'object' animation were real life, everyday used objects are used in producing a video.

Abradab Piosenka o gownie is a polish hip hop song that used this type of animation. Lego bricks were used in this video. Figures have also a little bit animated facial features. Overall this music video is very unusual and creative, it's something that we don't see so often.

Stop Motion Animation

Lately we had presentation on different types of stop motion animation. I'm not a massive fan of it,however can appreciate amount of work that goes into making. Moreover I've come to realise that many bands use it for their music videos.

First video I've decided to present is Ratamahatta by Sepultura. Puppets were used in this video, it also have a very interesting colours. Moreover it's very dynamic and have many different camera angles. It also matches the music perfectly.

Second video is Wait and Bleed by Slipknot. In this video they mixed actors with puppets. It is a very disturbing video so if you don't like metal music and/or bugs - better avoid it. However I like the way they planned shots and created overall mood.

3D Modelling&Animation|Building the set

I've finished modelling my characters and set.

For rocks I've used rock textures (from hypershade menu, 3D texture) and I've grouped them into rock group. Naming and grouping objects is a good habit and makes workflow better and faster.

Inspirations for painted background:
 - Daniel Arriaga (piece for Peck n Paw).

 - Sven Pauwels

- Tommy Kinnerup

 I'm after cartoony and colourful style for background. When selecting above pieces I was mostly interested in style and colours used not how complex the scene was. I'll produce finished background painting by the end of this week. By doing this I will be able to render my animation next week and manage everything else in time (like adding sound and credits).

Platige Image

For my PPP1 presentation I've decided to talk about Platige Image. I believe it's good to know different studios that are currently out there, even if they're based in foreing countries, like Poland or USA.

Platige Image - a creative studio with 15 years of experince in delivering stunning visuals and technolically advanced projects. Based in Poland and New York. Received over 200 awards and honors (incluging BAFTA and SIGGRAPH festival)

Platige Team - 150 professionals (directors, art directors, producers, graphic designes) specialised in animation and special effects.

Exceptional body of work, some projects worth mentioning:CyberPunk 2077, The Witcher 2, various commercials and VFX (e.g. Melancholia)

Tomasz Baginski - member of Platige Image; well known from The Cathedral (2002) and Fallen Art (2004). Also a director of cinematics for 'The Witcher', 'The Witcher 2'  and 'Cyberpunk 2077'.

Damian Nenow - art director at Platige Image, his 'Paths of Hate' (2010) received various award and nominations at animation festivals (e.g. Annecy). I've already mentioned Paths of Hate in my previous blogpost.

Platige Image have exceptional portfolio, full of stuninning animations and funny commercials. It also proves that if you want to work as animator you don't need to do only animated series for kids but also commercials, intros and outros for games, effects for films.


2012 Reel

3D Modelling & Animation| Hypershade

I've applied colours to my models by using hypershade menu; blinn and lambert were main materials I've used for this task. I've also grouped and named all parts (polygons) of cow model.

Cow:

 

•  decreasing amount of reflections made it look more like stuffed toy:

I'm thinking about animating eyes by using textures.
UFO:

  

• for lights I've used anisotropic material.

 

I'm pretty comfortable with using hypershade menu now. The next task on my list is getting background and eye textures done.

3D Modelling and Animation|Finished models

Finished models of my cow and U.F.O.

Made from simple shapes (mostly sphere) I've also used deformers quite a lot. There is still room for improvement (and probably someone with few years of 3D software experience could do this much more better) but I'm pleased with what I've got so far and as I model more in Maya I will get better :).
Now I need to draw textures and background.

Lecture 5 - The Photograph as Document

Notes from The Photograph as Document lecture.

Lecture 10 - Fashion as Photograph

Notes from Fashion as Photograph lecture.

Lecture 9 - High Culture vs Low Culture

Notes from  High Culture vs Low Culture lecture.

Lecture 8 - Film Theory

Notes from Film Theory lecture.

Lecture 7 - A History of Type

Notes from A History of Type lecture.

Lecture 6 - Street Art/Grafftti

Notes from Graffiti/Street Art lecture.

Lecture 4 - Creative Advertising

Notes from Lecture 4 - Beginning; a History of Creative Advertising

3D Modelling&Animation|Colour keys

Two colour keys I've done for my animation in order to visualise how the finished project would look like. It also helped me establishing overall colours and mood. I'm going with a cartoony feel, bright and vivid colours, simple background.

I've also drawn an alien which I will use for my end credits background - at the beginning the title will be a flickering text, something similiar to the one we have done in our film project.

Paperman - Full Animated Short Film

Paperman is an animated short film created by Disney and shown before Wreck-it-Ralph. Some people refered to it as a 'future of 2D animation'.
In Paperman they've used a 3D models and set of special engines that generated in between frames, contours and overall feel of 2D. 

Videos illustrating new process.

I've really enjoyed watching this short - is a bit different and innovative but also very charming and touching. Moreover you fall in love with characters so quickly. I hope Disney will use this technology to produce full lenght feature film.

Larva|MondoMedia

Larva is one of my favourite shows on MondoMedia created by a group of Korean animators.

The story and characters are very simple - afterall it's about two larvas living in sewers, but also really bright, colourful and funny. Each episode is about 3mins long. It's definatly one of those shows that are worth watching just because of good humor and nicely animated characters. Also every show ends with little 2D animation of larvas.